A slow burn on plan for town trash plant

Published 4:47 pm, Saturday, April 27, 2013

BETHLEHEM — A year after a Kentucky technology company approached the town with a plan to set up a trash gasification plant here, little movement has been made on the proposal.

Last April, Recycling Solutions Technology proposed building such a plant in an industrial area on the Hudson River, at a site between the river and Route 144, near the PSEG power plant on land once owned by National Grid.

Town Attorney James Potter said RST met with town officials recently and "indicated their desire to move forward with the project."

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RST has yet to submit a formal application to the town, Potter said, but the town expects one "in the near future."

"It has been progressing slowly," he said.

During the gasification process, garbage is heated and then converted into energy to be sold back to the power grid. According to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records, the company holds a patent for a gasification process that creates a combustible gas that can be burned to produce steam for making electricity.

Last year, company representatives told the board that a fee would be paid to officials annually based on the profits the company makes if it did locate a plant in town.

Establishing the plant would require the town to change a municipal law that prohibits transporting municipal waste into town and a zoning code to add the specific type of plant to the list of uses under heavy industrial use.

The company would also need a subdivision approval from the town Planning Board, a full Environmental Impact Statement, which would be subject to various public hearings and reviews from state agencies, and approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Last year, an attorney with RST said the process could take a year. RST did not respond to a request for comment.

Potter said permit requirements were part of the reason for the plan's slow progress.

"It is a complicated environment for these type of regulatory permits," he said.

GREEN ISLAND — An anticipated lottery nightmare has yet to wallop the Green Island Union Free School District's state aid.

Superintendent Michael Mugits said the district is waiting to see what happens as a result of town resident John Kutey's $28.7 million share of the $319 million Mega Millions prize having a potential impact on the state aid formula.

"We have not heard anything yet," Mugits said.

"Our local representatives in the state Legislature said they're monitoring it," Mugits said.

It was a year ago that officials learned that Kutey's winnings were equal to 68 percent of the $42 million annual earnings of the village's 2,610 residents. Adding that money together would hike the seven-tenths-of-a square-mile village's income to $70.7 million, producing aid cuts. The district has just one school for all grades, the Heatly School with about 325 students.

It was an unforeseen event, both at the local and state levels. No one expected a community's income could so radically shift from one winning lottery ticket. Kutey was one of seven employees at the New York State Homes and Community Renewal agency in Albany who shared the winning ticket. He has contributed money to the village.

Assemblyman John T. McDonald III, D-Cohoes, who represents Green Island, said during his first days in the state Legislature that he was checking in on the consequences.

"I've talked to counsel at the Assembly about intervening to address this if it happens," McDonald said.

Mugits said that the state's handling of aid may have delayed the impact, which means the district can just wait.